We just bought a house and need to decide among a 15-, 30- or possibly 20-year mortgage. My wife and I are 51. We will likely work only another 10 to 12 years. At that point, we will probably sell the house and move into something smaller. How long of a mortgage term should we select?

J.S.

The answer depends on what you are doing in other areas of retirement preparation. At a minimum, you want to be certain that you are saving enough in qualified plans to capture your employer match (assuming there is one). If the higher payments on a 15-year mortgage would interfere with that, then it would be better to take out a mortgage with a longer term. It would be even better to save the maximum allowed in qualified plans, then take out the shortest mortgage you can handle easily. The operative word here is easily — you don’t want to put yourself into a monthly payment straitjacket.

Selling the house later will create a nice “liquidity event,” allowing you to make a well-considered “right-sizing” decision on your retirement shelter, so maximizing mortgage paydown is a really good idea.

I would like to know what to do with money in an IRA account. I am 77 and have a pension and Social Security. I also have a five-year CD coming due this month in my IRA. This CD has been earning 5.3 percent. Now the most I can get on a super jumbo CD for one year is 1 percent. I do not want an annuity, and I am not comfortable with the stock market. Is there anything out there that would earn more than 1 percent? I know I am going to have to start withdrawing principal. This is a common problem for seniors, and I don’t hear anyone addressing it.

I.V.

The question isn’t being addressed because there really aren’t any answers that people will accept. Every investment that provides a higher yield than bank CDs involves some degree of risk. There are lots of ways to get yield out there — the big telecom stocks come to mind, as do “dividend aristocrats” stocks, REITs, preferred stock mutual funds and junk bond funds — but none is guaranteed. And all can fluctuate in value by more than 20 percent a year. That’s the way it is. You can thank the Federal Reserve for the policy.

I am turning 62 this year and plan to retire at 65. I have three pensions plus a 401(k). I am single, have no dependents and am in very good health. I have purchased my retirement home and have a mortgage of approximately $216,000 at 3.75 percent. I will soon be closing on the sale of my prior home and should have approximately $100,000 net proceeds after the cost of the sale.

My question is whether I should apply the sale proceeds to my mortgage amount or buy a $100,000 life annuity that hopefully would generate enough income in five to seven years to pay my monthly mortgage. At 3.75 percent, I think I’m better off generating income rather than having a lower mortgage balance. I will still have to pay the same monthly amount, just for a shorter time. What should I do?

P.B.

That’s an interesting idea, but it’s not nearly as lucrative as you seem to think. According to the website immediateannuities.com, a single male buying a $100,000 life annuity can expect a payout of 6.52 percent a year, or $543 a month. In comparison, the monthly payment on a $100,000 mortgage for 30 years at 3.75 percent is $463. That would leave you with about $80 a month in extra spending money for the rest of your life. That’s not bad. But if you wanted to pay the mortgage off in seven years, you’d have to make payments of $1,355 a month, which is $812 a month more than the annuity income.

Scott Burns is a syndicated columnist and a principal of the Plano-based investment firm AssetBuilder Inc. Email questions to scott@scottburns.com.